Jack - Secret Seychelles Man (feat. Renato Mariotti)

Episode Date: March 9, 2020

This week on Mueller, She Wrote, some updates on the Buzzfeed FOIA lawsuit, updates about the McGahn case and we have an interview with Renato Mariotti of the On Topic podcast! Want bonus MSW content?... Become a patron at patreon.com/muellershewrote

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, it's Kimberly Host of The Start Me Up Podcast. If you like your politics with some loose talk and salty language, you're going to love my show. I interview the coolest people like Mary Trump, Kathy Griffin, and DNC Chair Jamie Harrison. The Start Me Up Podcast has an easy-going, casual style and a strong emphasis on left-leaning politics. We also have frank discussions about sex
Starting point is 00:00:20 and more than a few spirited rants. Just visit patreon.com slash start me up or wherever you get your podcast and start listening today. Thanks to Noom for supporting Mollershi Road getting in shape isn't about a number on the scale and Noom helps you develop a new relationship with food build healthier habits and feel better about yourself. Sign up for your trial today at noom.com slash AG. And thanks to best fiends for supporting Mollershi Road. at noom.com slash AG. And thanks to best fiends for supporting Muller She Road. Best fiends is a unique and exciting puzzle experience unlike other puzzle games out there.
Starting point is 00:00:49 Best fiends updates the game monthly with new levels and events so it never gets old. Download free at the Apple Store app or on Google Play. This is Andrew McCabe and you're listening to Muller She Road. So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs. That's what he said. That's what I said. That's obviously what the opposition is. I'm not aware of any of those activities.
Starting point is 00:01:22 I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign And I didn't have not have communications with the Russians. What do I have to get involved with Putin? For I have nothing to do with Putin. I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother Then he will respect me Russia if you're listening. I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing So it is political you're a communist and the 30,000 emails that are missing. So it is political, you're a communist.
Starting point is 00:01:48 No, Mr. Green, communism is just a red hairline. Like all members of the oldest profession, I'm a capitalist. Hello and welcome to Muller She Wrote. I'm your host A.G. and with me today, our Jordan Coburn. Hello. And Amanda Reader. Hello.
Starting point is 00:02:03 We have a great show for you today. A lot of Mueller news is ripening, which sounds weird, but it is, including some court rulings that will impact cases from Mueller investigation. We have stories about Eric Prince, who's back in the news, Concord Management, that's Cifgany Progozens joint. The Don McGann-Sapina has news, Ross Neth. We've got a new story from Ross Nift. Christopher Steele is in the news and some sabotage with Robert Hyde. That's that crazy dude that was stalking her, you've on of it. And an interview with the host of the on-topic podcast, Renato Marriotti, who's here to talk to us about the legal ramifications of
Starting point is 00:02:41 the decisions and the filings going forward in the McGann subpoena case by the House Judiciary. For the latest on the 2020 election and coronavirus outbreak, check out, and the Senate's investigation into Hunter Biden and all that, check out our sister podcast, The Daily Beans, first thing Monday morning, or Sunday night if you're a patron. How are you? How was your weekend? I've had a friend here from San Francisco, and we've just been eating everything for two days. Literally all had done since I lost all you was eat. I know, I'm on the last final week coming up, approaching the final week of my fitness challenge
Starting point is 00:03:16 or in three fitness is an eight week long thing. Four weeks in, I was in third place. I think I may, I think I might take a dip. Oh, coming up here with hands. But when you're done feast. Yeah. Well, I'm already doing that. But there were burritos.
Starting point is 00:03:32 What are you supposed to do? Say no. Right? Yeah. Oh my god. You grabbed that burrito with two hands. And you eat it sideways. Eat it sideways.
Starting point is 00:03:40 My poor friend, she's Irish. And she, I'm so forceful with my love of San Diego Mexican food as I've talked about before on the show. At the very end of the trip just now, she goes, I don so forceful with my love of Sandi-Agan Mexican food as I've talked about before on the show. At the very end of the trip just now, she goes, I don't really like Mexican food that much. And that's like all I took her to eat the whole weekend, but she didn't want to disappoint me because I was so enthusiastic. And I was like, oh shit, I'm so sorry. Well enjoy your enchiladas on the flight home. Sandi-Ago has like so many different amazing pockets of cuisine also. So for next
Starting point is 00:04:07 time you could check out like Convoy. True. Controversial. She said she thinks that San Diego's food scene might be better than the Bay Area. Controversial statement. But she's a foodie so. Okay. She was a Yelp super elite. Oh, super elite. Oh, dang. I just took some mappings. Yeah. She's got the drawer full of ketchup packets. Oh, god. You know, they don't give you, not that I ever go through with McDonald's drive through late at night.
Starting point is 00:04:37 Not that I would know that, but they don't give you ketchup anymore unless you ask for it. And what? Yeah, they haven't been doing that for a while. That is one of their only redeeming qualities. Right? Their ketchup. I always forgot to ask.
Starting point is 00:04:48 All the massive amounts of it they would give to you. Oh yeah. And sometimes when I go into fast food restaurants, I prefer the ketchup pump to the packets. True. Like in and out. Yeah. You set up his way better, I agree. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:01 We even know their fries are shit. Interesting. I love their fries. We just had this disgust in the other day where I was like, there's two wolves inside me. One wants to eat nutritious, whole, healthy food. I made us like really good vegan quinoa. They're so good.
Starting point is 00:05:11 And the other wolf inside me wants McDonald's. Oh yeah. And they're both on Jordan's T-shirts. Yeah. I heard Beyond Me is coming to McDonald's too, which is very exciting for a non-meet eater. But speaking of feasting, really quick, what I did this weekend, do you all watch MasterChef? Yes. Okay. Do you remember Dino, the winner
Starting point is 00:05:29 that has the tattoos, and he always says, baby doll, it is like, it's like kind of insane. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So he was doing a menu for a Veterans Foundation, uh, funders are basically on Friday. So me, Dallas, Sam, uh, Dallas's wife, AJ and AJ's wife, Jenna and Ryan and I. We all went to this food tasting fundraiser where Dino was a chef and we got to meet Dino and he explained the menu and all that shit. It was like a five-course meal.
Starting point is 00:05:57 Master chef, super fan. Oh, I am, I know. Ryan and I, and everyone that went to that, like clearly we were the only there for Dino and everybody else was there for the Veterans Association. So it's like everybody's like above 70 years old and it's just this like a table of tattooed Pierce, like young people that are just massive.
Starting point is 00:06:18 Yeah, we're all like Jerome can just fucking, it was the best. It was so fun. We're like, bring us Dino, bring out Dino. That's what it was like for us when Rich had, and I think he still works around too, around town. He was on the other chef show. Top chef, dropped, top chef. And he had Arging, he's into tots.
Starting point is 00:06:42 That's what is that one? Tater tots, gourmet, like, oh. Yeah, That's what is that one. Tater tots. Like gourmet. Oh. Yeah, these ones that were infused with grier that are... Infused. Yeah, they were good. You were all said discovered this weekend, and my wife's been telling me about this for five years. There's a shop in Little Italy called Shakespeare's, and they have all my favorite British chocolate.
Starting point is 00:07:00 Oh, that's true. So if you are from the British Isles, a new live in SoCal, Shakespeare's in San Diego has everything. You didn't know about Shakespeare? I knew about it. I just never went. Oh, yeah. And they have a little tea room up there. They do. It's so cool. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:14 And they have, of course, downstairs of Shakespeare's book. That's so cool. So my Irish friend and I used to live together in London. And so she lives in California now too. And so we went to this amazing British shop. Is this the one that's kind of in Linda Vista actually? No, it's down by Lutrilee Bray on the 5th and Washington. That's what I'm thinking.
Starting point is 00:07:31 Yeah, cool. Anyway. And yeah, we took my goddaughter there for a Harry Potter high team. Oh, cute. And we were Boba Tons, who was cool. Yeah. Legend. I fucking love food.
Starting point is 00:07:42 Yeah. And as Jack Handy says, if Jesus lives inside of us, I hope he likes burritos because that's what it's about. So we have a lot of news to get to. I know you're here, it's a new show, you're welcome. But first we have a few corrections. It's time to stay. It's time for me to say I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:08:02 Oh, I made a mistake. Okay, from Sloan Russell and also Leonard Grossman. You are a ray of truthful light. Oh, thank you. FYI, capital punishment can be used for federal and military crimes like treason, not just state crimes. Also, as a gruesome side note, the government hasn't been executing people for federal crimes, but Barr is bringing it back. So she wanted us to know that capital punishment is illegal penalty under the United States federal government criminal justice system.
Starting point is 00:08:35 It can actually be imposed for treason. Hope it's sunny and lovely in San Diego. You are amazing. It actually just stopped raining. So it is now, it is now, it just needs to dry up a little bit. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. From Gerald and also is now, it is now just needs to dry up a little bit. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. From Gerald and also Maddie, it's awesome to hear civil disagreement about primary picks. Thank you. The three Mexico's is not a trumpism despite sounding like one.
Starting point is 00:08:55 It actually came from the derp's over at Fox News. The Fox and Friends Weekend crew referred to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras is the three Mexican countries in a segment about President Trump's plan to cut aid to Central America. It's a Central America. So they started it. Yeah, yeah, it was the derp's at Fox News. Would love to see all of the live show
Starting point is 00:09:14 to meet my daily news with swearing shiros. Yeah, it was all from Hannah. I love your show. It's the only news I can listen to without feeling existential dread. It's all the burrito talk. While it's true, most of Bernie's base won't vote for Biden for president than the other way around, not most of, but more of. It's disingenuous to say Bernie voters won't vote blue and down ballot races or would stay home if Biden
Starting point is 00:09:37 gets the nomination without pulling to back that claim up. Sanders' strongest demographics, 18-40 40 people of color and college educated were a major driver of the blue wave in 2018 according to Pew each group voting blue by 30 plus point margins with a higher than average turnout and electing many moderate Democrats. Thank you preemptively from me for the next eight months of panic. Public work. I do have polling that does show percentages of which of the candidates would vote for another candidate. Yang was the number one candidate whose supporters would not vote for anyone else. Yeah, that actually checks out with the Yang supporters I've seen on Twitter too, which
Starting point is 00:10:18 is interesting because like a lot of celebrities kind of endorse him too. And it seems like these are celebrities that just shit on politics constantly and are not in the space or they're willing to do the vote when the matter gets to the cast. Is there like a hashtag? Cause there's like the Burning or Best hashtag. Is there a Yang hashtag?
Starting point is 00:10:33 Like Yang or? There was the Yang gang. But they were very about like, those are the folks who would never fucking vote. And they just be like him all vote for anyone else. Fuck you. That was kind of interesting. And again, that was only a couple of people that I saw.
Starting point is 00:10:47 Right. anecdotally. Yes. And I know that a lot of young supporters are proudly voting blue. Yeah. But I did get that from an actual poll. I don't know. I didn't look at the breakdown of the poll, how many people, et
Starting point is 00:10:59 cetera, et cetera. I didn't test the validity. But it was a poll that I saw. From Aaron Ross, science reporter with Oregon Public Broadcasting. Hi, all of MSW and the Daily Beans. I can't say how much your news and commentary keeps me sane. Everything is well reported and fair. Your election coverage has been a breath of fresh air.
Starting point is 00:11:16 In last Monday's edition, a few of you were asking why people shouldn't purchase or wear a medical mask as a precaution. I mean, if it works for health officials, shouldn't we be safe? The thing is, there's currently a global shortage of medical masks and people precaution. I mean, if it works for health officials, shouldn't we be safe? The thing is, there's currently a global shortage of medical masks and people who are sick or caring for sick really need them. And since most people don't know how to properly wear a mask, anyway, they're pretty useless for the general public,
Starting point is 00:11:34 like you said, and wash your hands. Nice. Seriously, I love the podcast. Glad you're taking time out of politics to cover an incredibly important story. One journalist to another, you're reporting, helps me sit through the mess and focus on my job, writing about science and coronavirus. Aw, hey, that's cool. That's nice.
Starting point is 00:11:49 That's so nice. Thank you. We're in public radio. Nice. Hell yeah. Uh, I know, I love them. From Alex Schaefer, you're honestly keeping me in probably several several hundred thousand others from having a stroke. The world is dark, you give us light to remind us that other people are in the darkness too and we're not alone. Your comment on voter turnout, youth voter turnout wasn't wrong per se, but nuanced.
Starting point is 00:12:12 The 13% number on Tuesday for 18-29 year olds wasn't their turnout, but it was the percent of turnout that was 18-29. Around 19% of the electorate is 18-29. So the percent of that turnout shouldn't be that high anyway. It's still low, but the participation rate is around 68 percent and to no actual turnout, I would need the number of voters, which we didn't know yet. To conclude, youngsters weren't energized like we wanted, but it's better than it sounds. Okay.
Starting point is 00:12:37 All right. Cool. Thank you. Yeah. From Taylor Bovoire, your legal reporting is top notch. I'm always super impressed and happy to learn every time legal news drops. Amanda mentioned having climate anxiety and then went on to talk about Biden's support coming from oil money and fame and frame his environmental policy as less progressive than
Starting point is 00:12:53 Bernie's just so you know Biden signed a no fossil fuel money pledge. This campaign cycle additionally introduced the first climate change bill to Congress in the 80s. Biden's climate goal is also the same as Bernie's carbon free by 2050. Any plans to commit $5 trillion in total to fight climate change. Nice. Thank you for that. I hadn't looked up the bullet points on his climate proposal. Yeah, that's awesome. More than any other podcast, it's nice to hear from you all about the things that give
Starting point is 00:13:18 me anxiety while I'm living abroad. I appreciate the coverage and the real conversation that takes place about the state of our nation and how we can help. Thank you. So those are corrections. If you have any for us, please head to mullershearote.com. Click contact, select corrections, and build us a compliment sandwich.
Starting point is 00:13:33 We'll get it right eventually. We do have a lot of news to get to, so let's get to it with just the facts. All right, so we got some big news in the Buzzfeed FOIA case seeking the underlying Mueller investigation evidence this week as the judge, Reggie Walton, questioned the credibility of Bill Barr and the Department of Justice after their spin on the Mueller findings in that four-page memo he released last April.
Starting point is 00:13:54 The judge then ordered the Department of Justice to hand over the entire unredacted Mueller report to the court so he could review it in camera, which means, you know, in his private office. We have a with a camera. Yeah. Really? I'm gonna take a pic now. Oh, interesting name then. Yeah. And it's Latin for under the roof, I think. In camera. We have a lot more on the details of this case and the path forward in the interview later with Ronaldo Marriotti. Walton gave the Department of
Starting point is 00:14:20 Justice until March 30th to hand over the unredacted Mueller report. That's the day before the Supreme Court is set to hear the Deutsche Bank in Mazar's cases and the day before Bill Barr is set to testify to the House Judiciary Committee, provided he's still the Attorney General. Please note, we have no inside sources, just public reporting to speculate that Bill Barr might leave his job. It's not, it's just what I think. And from Politico, US prosecutors from the Mueller team say they have a mystery witness who will directly implicate Putin's chef progojin, who was the head of Concord Management and ran the Internet Research Agency.
Starting point is 00:14:55 And it will implicate him in schemes to carry out election interference overseas. The trial is set to begin in DC next month and this witness is prepared to testify in the case that Mueller brought against 13 Russians and Concord Management. None of the charged individuals are known to have been arrested or faced charges, but the entity Concord Management actually hired American lawyers to fight the case and what we all considered to be like a trial. Yeah, a trolling of the American courts, because we know from previous reporting they did that to get their hands on molar documents,
Starting point is 00:15:26 which they later falsified and released, saying they hacked the molar probe. Until this reporting, evidence was expected to be comprised of emails, budgets, pretty dry shit, records detailing the effort called project loctah. So the prosecution's announcement that they have a live witness prepared to do detailed face-to-face dealings with progoation came as a surprise.
Starting point is 00:15:48 So you remember that spy that was deep in the Kremlin and we tried to pull him out and he resisted. He said, no, I'm going to stay. But then eventually came back to the United States. I have beans on it being him because one of the lawyers dropped some hints in the February 21st hearing for this case, the Concord Management case. First, they're having the witness testify under a pseudonym, and as we know, Bob Woodward wrote in the book Fear that six human sources
Starting point is 00:16:14 backed up the CIA's assessment that the Russians sought to undermine Clinton in 2016, and that Kremlin source is one of those six sources. His name we now know to be Oleg Smolinkoff. So my beans are on Oleg. We may never know who the mystery witness is, but that's who I think it is. Interesting. I have a quick question. Yeah. If you're representing an entity that's international, and they're not physically showing up and like speaking for themselves, but you're getting paid for money, that's overseas, is there any sort of like, or do you think there's any sort of extra process you have to go through to sort of register yourself as like a representative for an overseas company? Most like most court cases, I assume that you have to present yourself as the defense team and judge has to approve it.
Starting point is 00:16:57 I'm assuming it's probably that that sort of encapsulates that sort of process, like just all within the courts. Yeah. And you remember these guys, you did reporting on this, Jordan. Their their filings in court were like, yeah, ridiculous. They quoted Tweety Bird and it is the exact cartoons or whatever. And they dropped the F bomb in it a couple. And the judge was like, this isn't helping you. But it was all supposed to just be the show trial anyway. And here all of a sudden, Muller's team is like, oh, we got a witness. And I just imagined Concord management. team is like, oh, we got a witness. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:17:25 I just imagine Concord management's like, fuck. Yeah. So that'll be funny, I think, personally. We'll be back with more news, including what Kristiol is saying about the Mueller report. Another judge requesting more Russian memos, and an update about that 0.5% commission, $280 million from the sell-off of Ross Neff that's been missing. We have some updates on that, so stay with us. Hey everybody, it's A.G. and this episode of Mullershy Road is brought to you by NUME. I used to think getting in shape meant being thin without any body fat, having a diet
Starting point is 00:17:55 of nothing but kale and kale flavored air, but I was wrong. Getting in shape doesn't have to be about a number on the scale or losing a specific amount of weight or anything like that. Actually, it's just about building healthier habits and feeling better about yourself, having more energy, and that's why I love noom. I've been using noom for about a year and a half, and they helped me develop a new relationship with food
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Starting point is 00:18:37 I lost some weight up front, but now it's just sort of about maintenance and having a better relationship with food, with no guilt. Because with NUME you pick the goals that are right for you and they personalize a program to help your goals become reality. It's based in a cognitive behavioral approach and they use personalized courses to help you reach your goals. You don't have to commit to a rigorous plan at all. It's pretty easy. It's just 10 minutes a day and they make it super convenient with everything in the noom app. So you don't have to have a different app for like one for tracking steps, one for logging
Starting point is 00:19:03 food, one for getting your nutrition stuff. It's all there in the new app. And there's no shaming. They don't use negative reinforcements. So there's no shaming. Just tips to help you get back on track. So it's a perfect time to make a step toward healthier habits. Sign up for your trial today at num.noam.com slash AG. What do you have to lose? Visit num.com slash AG to start your trial today. That's num. Visit num.com slash AG to start your trial today. That's num. N-O-O-M dot com slash AG. Okay, so welcome back from the Daily Beast this week. Christopher Steele spoke to a group of students at Oxford University in England attacking the Mueller report and Trump's Department
Starting point is 00:19:38 of Justice in his first public remarks since his dossier was published in 2017. This was like a little private group with those students, but Daily Beast was invited. Steele said the Mueller probe failed to do any drilling down into financial networks and leverage, which he said is the crux of how Russian influence works. Steele said he was interviewed by the Mueller team for two full days, but said I was surprised that very little of what I had discussed with them appeared in the final report. He criticized the probe for being too narrow in scope and failing to follow up on crucial evidence.
Starting point is 00:20:08 He complained about certain witnesses, not being interviewed at all, like Don Jr., for example. And he also went after the Department of Justice and its Inspector General report on the Russia probe, which criticized then the FBI's interactions with Chris Steele. He went on to say that he is not cooperating with the Durham bar investigation. You know how bar like appointed Durham to redo.
Starting point is 00:20:30 He's not cooperating with that shit. He says, I fully cooperated with the IG. And as far as I'm concerned, we've done our duty. We've said everything we've had to say on the matter. Yeah, at a certain point, it's like, you need to retain some personal dignity. Not get dragged through this country's shit show. Totally, like, how many follow-up so you're gonna have?
Starting point is 00:20:47 So you had the Russia probe, then you had the IG report on the Russia probe, and now you wanna do another probe on the probe. Sorry, I'm done with your probe. Exactly. I'm done with your probe. Fuck your probe. And from Josh Gerstein at Politico, I love this guy.
Starting point is 00:21:00 There's another judge ordering the review of a Russia probe related document and camera. A federal judge in DC has ordered the NSA to turn over a memo that details a conversation in which Trump pleaded with former NSA chief Mike Rogers to take action to rebut news reports about collusion between Trump and Russia. Sounds like another obstruction of justice charged to me. The judge in the case Colleen Collar Coddally, his best name ever, it's so great. She said in a ruling
Starting point is 00:21:29 Friday she needs to read the memo written by Rogers deputy Rick Legit to decide whether it can be blocked from release in response to a foya suit. Trump in the Department of Justice opposed the in-camera review by the judge, but the judge disagrees saying in light of the arguments and legal principles, making a responsible Nanovo determination, Nanovo determination, and the NSA's exemption claims requires an in-camera review. That's a lot of Latin for, I gotta look at the shit before I decide if we can release it. Fair.
Starting point is 00:21:57 The Department of Justice says the memo is classified and exempt under the FOIA rules because it describes a confidential conversation between the president and the top advisor. The watchdog group that filed the FOIA request, the Protect Democracy Project, says the privilege was effectively waived after Mueller included a summary of the conversation in his report last year. The judge says to make a decision, she must compare what's in the memo to what's in the Mueller report. This paired with the Walton decision in the Buzzfeed FOIA case, indicate that judges are sick of your shit.
Starting point is 00:22:28 Yep. They're increasingly unwilling to take representations from the Trump administration and the Department of Justice about the contents of documents being withheld and or redacted in these FOIA cases. The NSA has until March 13th. That's four days from now to hand over the memo for review. So I thought that was, yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:47 I'm really glad this fight is not done trying to get these unredacted memos and you have part pieces of the report because it was such an egregious offense. You know, how much we can assume that things were redacted when they shouldn't have been and to think that that was gonna be the end of it was very discouraging.
Starting point is 00:23:05 So I'm really thankful for, yeah, both feet and these judges and these watchdog groups and everybody that's trying to relentlessly uncover that stuff. Yeah, and it's really fascinating that it's all just sort of coming to light now because this is April of last year, you know, Bar released that memo and everyone just threw their hands up and went, well, that's the end of the molar thing
Starting point is 00:23:28 But this stuff is gonna be coming out for years to come. Wouldn't they like to believe that this was the end? Yeah, they're just I think they're just hoping it's the end until after the election Yeah, although I don't think that I mean the whole molar report should have You know spoken for itself and it didn't. So maybe the Department of Justice is like, well, we better comply with these orders. Our base isn't going to care. Yeah. Really quick. I had a comment about the Christopher steel thing. I feel like as someone that works in intelligence, he should know when you hit it, I don't know if it's different in Britain, where he works in his jurisdiction. But it seems like he didn't give any credit to the idea that you can only get so far
Starting point is 00:24:06 if a witness is non-cooperative. And if you literally can't discover more, it seems like that's what they said in the report, basically, is we just couldn't or people refuse to talk to us or we just had to make a judgment call on how long are we gonna sit around and try to wait and push for these things when they know, when they're Unreleafed and to give it to us.
Starting point is 00:24:27 Yeah, and Muller outlined that. He brought that up in the Muller report where he says, look, there'd be a lot more if people didn't lie, delete their conversations and fuck with my shit. Yeah. Although I do think that a lot of the scope problems, I don't know that Christopher Steele understands that the scope may have been limited, probably was limited by Rosenstein, who had promised to land the plane for Trump. So, to, you know, it is a little bit disingenuous to blame Mueller for that, but he also doesn't directly blame Mueller. He just says the Mueller report, so because it's missing all of this shit. And one thing that Mueller was not allowed to investigate was all the financial stuff,
Starting point is 00:25:11 which is Christopher Steele's number one thing. He's like, that's how Russia does their stuff. Totally. His money stuff. And you won't even let him do that. And we also know that Mueller was not allowed to investigate whether the vote was impacted or not, which blew Which blew my mind. But could be part of an open and ongoing intelligence community, intelligence investigation, which
Starting point is 00:25:31 we haven't heard anything about either. Yeah. Yeah. His frustrations, I sympathize with and I think I share them, but just we have that perspective of knowing, you know, DTJ, for example example was incredibly reluctant to their every witness in that case with the exception of people like Rig Gates and who else would you even put in his camp? He seems to be the most cooperative out of like all the witnesses in that report. He was all turquoise band and was pretty cooperative. Yeah, yeah, but aside from that, it's like they were just constantly hitting walls so yeah. He was just overly friendly and weird.
Starting point is 00:26:09 Numburg was drunk. So drunk. I watched the clip the other day it came up in my time hop you know a year ago when Aaron Burnett out front was like you smell like booze buddy. And he's like I have anything to drink and she's like, hmm. I can smell alcohol on your breath That's saying a lot in DC too I feel like that whole city is constantly half drunk So if you come in and to beat a coke right?
Starting point is 00:26:35 Yeah, and someone's like, dude hold your shit man. You're ruining it for all of us That's the only reason she brought it up. Don't wreck it for the rest of us. Functioning alcohol. Just kidding. And Bloomberg news put out a story this week saying Singapore accounts reveal a payment to help secure Kurdish deals and that Rosneft paid $250 million to an external consultant to help secure those deals. The fee was linked to deals that helped Rosneft become the dominant foreign player in the Kurdish oil industry. In the process, this drew Russia deeper into Iraq just as Putin was seeking to bolster the Kremlin's position in the Middle East.
Starting point is 00:27:15 The $250 million was paid over two years by Rosneft Swift subsidiary, Swiss, not Swift, Swift subsidiary Rosneft trading. The same subsidiary, the US and Post Sanctions on last month, by the way. The fee was disclosed a few weeks ago in the financial statements of a Singaporean subsidiary created by Ross Neufd as a holding company for its investments in Kurdistan. And Singaporean is interesting because if you remember KT McFarland when she was taken out as Flynn's number two, and she was a Bud McFarland like protege all about putting nuclear reactors in the Middle East, she was appointed the ambassador to Singapore, and Singapore was one of the four ambassadors that was at that Kisley Act meeting that shouldn't have been. The consultant wasn't named, but I can't
Starting point is 00:28:04 help but wonder if this is the mystery company from country A. We've been chasing for almost three years on the podcast. We will keep you posted on that. It's just a, it's just interesting that that 0.5% commission was paid to an unknown entity from a Singaporean subsidiary created by Ross Neft to bolster its oil investments in Kurdistan. Yep. And this week we know a federal appeals court dismissed the House Judiciary's case for a subpoena for Don McGann saying that it's not the court's job to play referee between the executive and the legislative branch except that's totally the fucking court's job. As expected, and I think we put beans on this, the House has filed to have the case rehered
Starting point is 00:28:46 and bonk, which we discussed with Glenn Kirschner in the interview last week. And bonk means all 11 judges will reher the case and make the call. Four are Republican appointees. It is a heavily democratically filled court of appeals in DC. I think Mayor Garland's in charge. I believe that on the merits, the House will win this one on the merits, which would mean the Trump administration would likely file for an appeal with a Supreme Court. And when I say on the merits, when the appeals court, this just this past week,
Starting point is 00:29:19 dismissed the case in a two to one ruling, they didn't do it on the merits. They didn't say that the House doesn't have the right to do this. What they said is that the courts shouldn't be making these decisions, so it was a jurisdictional dismissal. But if they listen to it and hear it on the merits, I guarantee you the house is going to win this one. But again, it'll just be appealed up to scotus. So look for that likely appeal with the Supreme
Starting point is 00:29:46 Court and probably a stay. We'll continue to follow this case and keep you posted. So that's what's going on with the Don McGahn testimony. Nice. Sweet. I'm going to go on into next year. I hope and I hope that the new Senate and the new Congress still just continue to pursue these investigations. You need to get Don McGann in there. Because if he has any new information that we didn't get out of the mold report, that's significant. I'm reminded to flip the Senate everyone. It's not just about the president. Yeah. And to get this out. And then we can investigate him criminally. And the House says that they will, if there's new information that Don
Starting point is 00:30:23 McGann has, they've said in one of their filings We'll we'll open up a new you know, we'll find more impeachment articles. Deble impeachment. Yeah, to Double stuff to impeachment What's the full what's the one that's like mega stuff or like? Oh, yeah, the Oreos. Yeah, yeah Oh, they just keep making new ones the Oreos. Yeah. Oh, they just keep making new ones. So, so you did a thing that was just all stuffed where it's just like one cookie, but it's like, it's just giant. I don't know about this, but I'm curious. One thing I will say about moving here, Canada's fairly similar in a lot of ways.
Starting point is 00:30:53 It's not like I moved here from somewhere that's like massively different. Canada and the UK are very similar countries. However, when I first moved here, I was like, holy shit, there's like 10 million more options for junk food. Yeah, I was just gonna, I was reading your mind. I was gonna say the cookie aisle is insane, isn't it? Oh my god, and serial options. I mean, it's nuts, yogurt, it's everything. I'm used to having like a couple of options, you know?
Starting point is 00:31:16 But when I moved here, I was like, oh my fucking god, there's like nine more flavors of Oreo. I lost my mind. Yes, and the grocery stores themselves are just incredibly large warehouses to account for set options. Yeah, we're letting you lose the grocery store by myself. I'll be there for hours. Never shop when you're hungry. Yes. Anyway, sorry, you were talking about something important and I was like, oh, yes. No, I was done. I was on to Oreos. So, you know, that was an appropriate track for
Starting point is 00:31:41 that conversation. But I bring a much needed political commentary to the show. You do. I appreciate you. We'll be right back with Hot Notes, Sabotage, and the Fantasy Indicently. So stay with us. Hey, everybody, it's A.G. One thing I've realized while doing research for Mollershi Road is the deeper you dig, the more layers you uncover.
Starting point is 00:31:56 And that's what I love about the new puzzle game called Best Fiends, except without all the corruption and criminal activity. Best Fiends is actually a great distraction when I need a break from today's insane politics, and the more I play, the more fun it gets. I reach each new level, I feel like I'm uncovering a new layer in a story that you get to be a part of. It's amazingly fun, it's free to download,
Starting point is 00:32:18 it's a five star rated game with a bright, vibrant design, fun characters that you can level up, and it combines an exciting story with challenging puzzles to engage your brain. But it's also a casual game because I am NOT a gamer, not a gamer, but this is so easy and fun to play. You collect these characters, you need to use them strategically for each level. I'm over level 100 now, kind of a champion, so I'm really excited about it, but you can share your progress via social media and you can engage your brain with fun puzzles and collect tons of cute characters
Starting point is 00:32:46 They have thousands of levels already with new levels events and characters added every month So it stays fresh. It's hours of fun right at your fingertips and you can play offline Which is super important because that way I can play it on the metro or the subway or on a plane It doesn't require the internet so I play it when I'm traveling with over a hundred million downloads and tons of five star reviews Best fiends is a must play download best fiendiends free on the Apple App Store or Google Play. That's Friends Without the R Best Fiends. Hot Notes. All right everybody, welcome back. Somebody who just can't seem to stand or the radar.
Starting point is 00:33:20 Eric Prince. Jordan, you have something going on with that fuck face. Yeah, yes, this is a big headline that came out over the last couple days, but we have, Eric Prince. Jordan, you have something going on with that fuck face. What's up? Yeah, yes. This is a big headline that came out over the last couple days, but we have, he's back. Reporting came out that Eric Prince, he's the sketchy security say shows man. He has been recruiting former British and US buys over the years. Say shows man. Say shows man. He would love that nickname and I hate that. I don't want't tell him.
Starting point is 00:33:45 Yeah, especially with that song. That's all he ever wanted. But all of the wildest of names will come through. Yeah. But he's over the last couple of years. Yeah, I guess he's been recruiting spies from Britain and US. And this is for intelligence gathering operations that we're specifically seeking to infiltrate democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations, and other groups that just are not fans or good
Starting point is 00:34:10 for Trump. Fans have a good for Trump. So for example, one of the former spies, he's an ex-MI6 officer. His name is Richard Seddon, SDDON, but he helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and film and record conversations in Michigan's office of the American Federation of Teachers. This is the pretty much like biggest teachers union or one of them in the nation. So they were looking for info that was going to, that they could release to the public and would be damaging to them. So it's shit like that where they're literally just recording people. Then the next year the same guy infiltrated the campaign of Democrat Abigail Spanberger and all these operations there ran by this group called Project Veritas, which is a conservative group that's known for spying specifically
Starting point is 00:34:55 on news orgs, Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. And yeah, it sounds pretty like old school spy shit, literally just hidden cameras and microphones. And all of this information is coming out now as a result of the discovery process in a court case that's between that teacher's union and project fairtoss, you know, then basically saying, hey, not okay, not chill. And we're just hopefully gonna get more and more
Starting point is 00:35:22 information about Prince and how he's been connected to this all There's nothing that's been explicitly tying Trump and you know his desires to the operations of this group But the Trump Foundation did give $20,000 to the group in 2015 and he brought up footage added to bait once that the group allegedly got as dirt on Obama and Hillary So that is so fascinating. You know what watergate was, right? Bugging and recording inside the Democratic National Headquarters in Watergate Hotel. Yep.
Starting point is 00:35:53 That's what this is. Yeah. It would appear that it's incredibly not okay. Right? Unless you're the FBI or an intelligence agency, I don't think you're allowed to just do that. No, so then this, you could call this our watergate. Because that's precisely what it was. Yeah, but for unions, yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:14 And then like smaller groups, I guess, instead of something as huge as a DNC, but I mean, who knows what's gonna be uncovered about their activities if this stuff is coming out right now. This is the first time hearing of this. Yeah, same. It does also make sense though that that's Exclusively kind of the work Eric Prince does being a security official. He's the one that tried to like Private eyes the war in Afghanistan by suggesting they do private contractors instead of troops and so he did He did have black water. Yeah, and so he's like a huge part of, you know, the Trump mindset, which is privatize the
Starting point is 00:36:46 military and intelligence industry and let's take away all institutional knowledge, because that goes great. And Eric Prince's sister is Betsy DeVos, the education secretary who's all about privatizing education. What a horrible sibling group. Yeah. What are what Thanksgiving must be like at the Prince House? Oh God.
Starting point is 00:37:04 Yeah. what do... They play it, they play Monopoly. Yes, but like, for real. Seriously. They like added their own plebeian pieces or something, you make themselves feel more sort of like Mediterranean and boardwalk in Park Place. It's like the prison system, the railroad. Yes.
Starting point is 00:37:22 Education system. Yeah, I got on for. Bet you's got the schools. I've got the military. Who else is in their family and what should are they doing? Yeah. Who raised these people? Did we just disassociate when you think about all the evil in the world? Oh yeah. Same. Yeah. Yes, yes, I do. I think that's what our entire podcast does. Oh, God. But it is just crazy. Well, that was our secondary name was dissociation nation.
Starting point is 00:37:49 It's so beautiful. This is too much. Let's zone out, eat cheeses and watch TV. I stay politically engaged. Everyone, it's really important. Yes. But sometimes if you need to dissociate and eat cheeses, that's also okay.
Starting point is 00:38:02 Yeah, a little Rick and Morty. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Nesleeve of salt, a little Rick and Morty. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeet and the sleeve of saltings in my underwear. I'm going to call the e-tos way. Thank you. Pat Nothwell.
Starting point is 00:38:12 And this is just something that I read in the article that I think is a fun fact. One of the operatives that they used in one of their spying missions was a graduate of Liberty University. No. So that was the kind of job which is no longer industry. It's like the Christian, it's a huge massively like, fall well junior funded joint. Yeah, it's run by a pool boys. Yeah, but it's just, and this is Liberty University. That's the one who ironically
Starting point is 00:38:45 Eric Prince's sister, right? Wasn't it heard that was like or no, was it not her? No, it wasn't her. It was doing what? It was basically not collecting fees and student loan debt from people that had Oh, no, that was um, that was a private for profit universities. That was a liberty? I don't think so. You may be right. Trump had a university.
Starting point is 00:39:10 They would have mentioned that in the article probably if that connection existed. Yeah, I was just Trump University that you're thinking of. Yeah. That he had to pay a $25 million settlement for and paid Pampondi off $25,000 to not investigate. Yes. Who became then his impeachment lawyer, one of them? Cool, cool, cool. I'm gonna find the story that I was thinking of
Starting point is 00:39:28 so I can correct myself later in the show if that's okay. Okay, so my hot note, this week we got a huge dump of Mueller 302s. Those are FBI interviews, notes about FBI interviews. In the Buzzfeed FOIA lawsuit, Jordan, you went over a lot of these, a lot of what was in that on Fridays, daily beans. And included the long sought after Kushner interview, which came out, though it was still heavily redacted.
Starting point is 00:39:51 As we know, and we will discuss in the interview later in the show, Bill Barr's credibility is under scrutiny by a couple of federal judges who have asked to review the entire unredacted Mueller report and a memo of a discussion between Trump and NSA chief Mike Rogers and camera. We also know Kristiel is taking issue with the scope of the Mueller report and we don't yet know how much of what he says is missing might be under those black boxes. We don't know yet. But there was one 302 in the pile of 600 pages that got released this week that I wanted
Starting point is 00:40:20 to go over and that's former ambassador Richardz, executed proffer agreement with the FBI. This is a previously unknown proffer deal until this week. According to his proffer agreement, Russian banker, Peter Oven, a billionaire oligarch with Alpha Bank, told Burt that Putin himself wanted a communications channel open between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team.
Starting point is 00:40:42 Then Oven, and that outreach from Oven to Ambassador Bert, is the only publicly known instance where Putin was personally involved in directing the Russian interference on behalf of the Trump campaign. If you all remember, Alpha Bank, where Oven worked, was involved in a surge of mystery traffic, internet traffic, to a server in Trump Tower in 2016, as we have reported, computer analysts concluded that Alpha Bank had developed a clandestine back channel to
Starting point is 00:41:08 the Trump Organization using the Alpha Bank server in Trump Tower. Burt, who was the ambassador to West Germany under Reagan, helped develop key points for an important foreign policy speech for Trump that he delivered in April 2016 with Kisley Act in attendance, and Burt had dinner with Jeff Sessions, according to Mueller, to discuss policy positions. Bert also aided Russia with plans for a gas pipeline, and he sits on the board of a Luxembourg company founded by Petter Oven of Alfa Bank in 2013. It's currently investing billions of dollars
Starting point is 00:41:37 in the American healthcare industry. Opening the back channel for Putin put Oven in a tough place because he could face sanctions over it, but you can't you don't go against Putin. So Bert took Oven's idea to Simes and has him to arrange a meeting with Kushner. That's where that whole Simes meeting with Kushner thing kept happening over and over again in the Mueller report. I think Simes was brought up hundreds of times in the Mueller report. So now we have a mystery witness set to testify next month in the Concord Management case. We have a Kushner 302 that's mostly redacted.
Starting point is 00:42:09 Still. We have two judges questioning the credibility of Bill Barr and main justices redactions in 302's and the Mueller report. We have Chris Steele telling Oxford University there's a lot of shit missing from the Mueller report in its current form. And of course we have the mystery company from country A, the Alpha Bank server communications after revelations of Putin himself wanting to set up a back channel, and the $250 million payout to Kurdish interests after the sell-off of Ross Neft. So it appears we're getting closer to the full picture here, and we'll be following
Starting point is 00:42:38 what these judges have to say about the appropriateness of what Bill Barr has been redacting. But what's under those black boxes is going to be extremely important. And Reggie Walton is taking no shit. Love him. I'm very excited. So all of this stuff we've been tracking. And yeah, I was just going to say it's good for us to be back in the news for us. Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:43:00 When you can change the name of your stupid punk. Yeah, always relevant. People have stopped asking me that question because it's so abundantly clear. The answer is never. I know. Right. We'll continue forever. Yeah, at least our audience is as big as ever and we're not leaving unless y'all
Starting point is 00:43:15 do. Well, and these people aren't stopping crime. So they're still committing crimes now that I'm sure will be investigated later. But even the should they've already done as it's demonstrated here, it takes forever to get to the bottom of yeah It does it takes a while. Yeah as evidenced yes Really quick correction to my Liberty University's mix up its Corinthian colleges Yeah, those are the names of the ones I was thinking Apollo group
Starting point is 00:43:40 But it was one of those for profit. Yes, but it was Betsy DeVos that was like getting threatened kind of to be getting trouble first, still trying to collect those debts. Yeah, the judge was like, I'll put you in fucking jail. Yeah, get your shit together, stop doing this. Yeah. So she had to pay a fine, not personally, but you know, out of the Department of Education. Yeah, but Liberty University is alive and well, and the career trajectory is apparently right into sketchy people's spy companies.
Starting point is 00:44:10 They have a whole class. They have a major focus on that. Yeah. How to get into Eric Prince's spy job. Oh, hi. Can you imagine the internships? I swear that's why they created that university is to establish a connection, probably just between first off,
Starting point is 00:44:25 profiting a bunch of money, and then people that have a bunch of money and want certain political ends. Either that, or they were looking around like, there's no lawyers that want to do our shitty shit jobs. We need to make a university, so we can get lawyers that will represent us
Starting point is 00:44:42 in these fucking cases. Who was that Greek dude that set up schools and shit? Was that Socrates or Plato? One of those. Yeah, wasn't it one of them? They were. And they just sat on some of the lovely, who's that Greek dude?
Starting point is 00:44:53 A Roman or whatever. A Roman or whatever. Or a dust in the wind. And then yeah, I should definitely know this considering my degree. Yeah, there's some sort of philosophy that you're out there who's like, Jordan.
Starting point is 00:45:03 Oh yeah, though. Well, I studied political theories specifically. I just largely is. I just largely is. So great. Okay, nice. I think it might have been where they have their their pretentious hill of free thinkers. Although I think you know one one big get the other big get the like one taught another taught another play the Aristotle and Socrates. There's I don't know which came first. I know Socrates was Plato's teacher. And I think Plato was our Saddle's teacher. I think that's the, you know what? You'll send us a correction. You know, it's not true. Play well. But I think Socrates was the father of the school.
Starting point is 00:45:35 Yeah, because like the Socratic method and everything, I would assume that was named because he was like the teacher. Yes. Yes. All right. Hard to yell teaching each other. Aren't we all so pretties? Didn't he die from hemlock poisoning? Yeah, he killed himself. Yeah. Oh, or I should say, he died basically. I said it was a conspiracy. And I think that QAnon's looking into it right now.
Starting point is 00:45:59 Yeah. Cause that's how relevant it is. Well, they were like, you can stop teaching people and you can stop filling the minds of the youth with this free thinking poison or you can drink literal poison. And he was like, okay, literal poison. Did the second one.
Starting point is 00:46:14 Hemlock. I'm pretty sure that's how it went. I think so. I'm not familiar with the story, but I believe you. I haven't, I haven't read that story, God, 20, 25 years. Yeah, there's like depictions of him, like his deathbed surrounded by all of his lovers, not sexually, but great pillars and whatnot.
Starting point is 00:46:30 Yes. Great pillars. The people that feed you, great. You feel. Oh, God. I think these were his brain disciples. Ah, brain disciples. Ah, ah, ah, ah.
Starting point is 00:46:43 Socrates' brain disciples. I have a kid that calledcrates' brain disciples. I have a kid that called them my brain disciples. I'm up on Netflix. Are you ready for sabotage? Yes. Okay, so remember Robert Hyde, the creepy dude running for Congress in Connecticut, over the objections of the GOP that texted back and forth with Parnas about Marie Ivanovich's whereabouts?
Starting point is 00:47:11 Well, he's picked up five new complaints for stocking, making nine total charges for abusing a protective order and criminal harassment. In the new charges, Hyde sent disparaging emails to his victims' clients and her husband under decoy email addresses threatening to expose his affair with the woman. Hide will return to court April 15th when prosecutors will make another request to revoke his bail while the judge reviews the new evidence. So that's what the prosecutor is trying to give his bail revoked saying he's got five more complaints since he's been out on bail.
Starting point is 00:47:40 You need to revoke his bail. So with that in mind, are you ready to play the fantasy indictment leak? Yes. I'm gonna be a scientist! No it is gonna be okay. I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist!
Starting point is 00:47:53 I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist!
Starting point is 00:48:01 I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna be a scientist! I'm gonna go and say hide nice like I sucks. Yeah fuck they're unhinged. He's like a Glenn Becky dude. Yeah, I think he belongs in like the nunberg circle of people. Yeah, the credit, you know, the totally want to like those folks. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:20 Okay, I'm going. Glenn. Nice. I'm gonna. Gullain. Nice. I'm gonna say Rudy. Oh. Oh. Tom Barrick. Fuck yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:34 One day. I'm gonna pay off. We switched last week. I thought it was gonna work for sure. I'll take super-seating Parnaas. I'm gonna say Prince. Eric Prince. Yeah, because I don't understand how that shit's okay. I don't need that.
Starting point is 00:48:52 How is that shit okay? Yeah. And then I'll go superseding Fruman. I will do... Am I? Yeah, how are you like... ...allowed to... ...spot?
Starting point is 00:49:09 Like in a private... But I guess like, private eyes or whatever... ...those people function. Like when you'd better someone to catch someone cheating on you or something. Yeah, those people exist. You can't uh... ...break into the Democratic. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:23 The groups. Yeah, I guess that's what they're saying. Then I'll go superseding Korea, C-O-R-R-E-I-A. And I'll do pecker. Pecker. Alrighty. You got pecker and Jislin.
Starting point is 00:49:43 A lot of dick jokes in your fantasy dynamic. Alright, we have a great interview coming up next to talk. We're going to talk about all the stuff that's going on in the McGann case, upcoming things and then some of the other interesting, muller decisions that are coming down the pike with Renato Marriotti hosted the on topic podcast right after this. Stay around. Hey everybody, it's A.G. and I wanted to tell you about a couple of podcasts that I think
Starting point is 00:50:06 that you should check out. First, there's the Awful Neutral Podcast. This is a D&D role-playing. We also do Call of Cthulhu and Kids on Bikes, which is based on Stranger Things. Just have fun role-playing podcasts. There's about seven or eight comedians that participate in this. Jordan, I know you're going to go play a non-player role or something, NPG, non-player character, really? Some NPC? Nice today. And it's just a lot of fun.
Starting point is 00:50:33 It's really a lot of improv and it's role-playing and it's a nice break from politics if you're looking for something like that. And Jordan, your pods coming out soon. Yes, yes, we are, I'm pretty sure launching this week. It's called I Disagree and myself and my co-host Steve, we talked to people about topics that we disagree on, and we're all comics, so you know, it's still the laugh, still the swears, not news-based, but conversational-based, and we've had a really good time recording a bunch of episodes we've got stacked up in in the pipeline,
Starting point is 00:51:04 so I'm really excited to send that out. Excellent. And there's a podcast called Incoming which I am being featured on this week. It comes out on KPBS, that's an NPR station here in San Diego. I think it dropped Friday so it's out now if you want to check it out. It's it's my story about how I mitigate my PTS with comedy and news and things like that. Really great podcast and they have a whole series, all of these folks from the military trying to, you know, get back into civilian life. It's really cool. And how they cope with that transition. So I think you'll really like it. Check it out. It's called incoming search work wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe and give a rating if you get a chance.
Starting point is 00:51:49 It would mean a lot to us. And those are the podcasts I want you to check out. So now we'll be going back to this podcast in three, two, one. So joining us for the interview today is former federal prosecutor, CNN legal analyst, and host of one of my favorite podcasts it's called On Topic. It's our friend, Renato Mariotti.
Starting point is 00:52:09 Renato, welcome back to Molleshirot, how are you? Great, I always glad to be back on Molleshirot. We are so happy to have you, and because you help us so much with like the legal analysis of so many different things that are coming out, I remember you were at our Chicago show live, you know, the day that bar or the excuse me, the day that I think Nadler filed for the underlying Mueller documents with the court. So this is a like, this is along those lines. So I wanted to give you a call. I've got like memories. I had run out to memories. So just this week, judge,
Starting point is 00:52:43 judge Reggie Walton, who's a Bush appointee, which normally I wouldn't bring up and normally doesn't matter until Trump got here. But Reggie Walton ordered the Department of Justice to hand over the fully unredacted Mueller report, citing bars rollout of the Mueller report suspicious, thereby questioning bars credibility. And so I was thinking, I mean, those are really strong words from a from a sitting judge about the sitting attorney general and i was wondering what your top-line reaction to the ruling was yeah i was
Starting point is 00:53:13 look i i was surprised i wasn't i agreed with one hundred percent with the judges conclusions and frankly i think anybody who is a thinking person who is looking at bars letter for example that he wrote that supposedly with summarizing the Mueller report i think it's hard not to see that he was being deceptive after all you would literally cut off sentence you know a quote mid sentence you quote like portions of a sentence the Mueller said and it would be a very highly misleading I was clear that he was deliberately misleading the public.
Starting point is 00:53:47 But it's really something for a judge to say that. I mean, essentially, what Judge Walden was saying is, you know, you are, you the government are asking us to trust you when it comes to these FOIA, these FOIA redactions. I don't trust you because, you know, bar showed that he had a lack of credibility throughout this entire process. That's something you may believe. I may believe, but to hear a federal judge say it is really something. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:14 And in parallel, as this ruling is coming out, we get another 600-page dump from the Buzz Feed Jason Leopold FOIA request on the Mueller memos, which of course are highly redacted. And so I think that it's, and I remember Judge Walton saying early on, these redactions had better be on the up and up, or I will go through each one of them to determine their appropriateness. And so I wonder if that's sort of where he's heading with this. What do you think about that? Yeah, I think he's asking, I think he wants to see what they call it in camera.
Starting point is 00:54:51 In other words, I think the judge wants to review the underlying unredacted documents himself. He's going to go through and he's going to see if the redactions are appropriate. And you know, that is unusual. I mean, look, anyone who's ever foiled at something. We'll tell you that usually when you get back our few pages, fold with black marker through them, redacting, and then a statement, a letter that says that there's a whole bunch of other documents that are being withheld because they fit within exceptions. You know, foiled is a very important tool.
Starting point is 00:55:22 Journalists use it, but the fact of the matter is that the exceptions often are so large that they swallow up the rule. And agencies have every incentive to aggressively interpret those exceptions. And essentially, what he's saying is, the Justice Department released a statement saying, hey, FAR wasn't behind the red actions. It was career employees who did them. And what essentially the judge is saying is, look, because of FAR's actions, it was career employees who did them. And what essentially the judge is saying is, look, because of Barr's action,
Starting point is 00:55:47 it really hurts the credibility of the entire department. I can't trust you going forward. And I also think, you know, Judge Walden, you know, to reference another friend of Mueller, she wrote Andrew McCabe, you know, Judge Walden was involved in a prior suit involving FOIA, a FOIA request for McCabe documents, and he expressed some serious concerns about that prosecution
Starting point is 00:56:12 saying it was like a banana republic, the way that that was being undertaken. And of course, he's a former federal prosecutor himself. I think he views it through a lens that's very informed, and I think from his perspective, he's concerned about what's going on at the UJ right now. Yeah, that's right. Judge Walton, as you pointed out, was the judge who gave an ultimatum to the Department of Justice that they needed to fish or cut bait. They had to either charge McCabe, close the case, or release these documents, the firing
Starting point is 00:56:44 documents that were in the FOIA case. So he seemed to have not a lot of patience for what's been going on over at the DOJ. You said the DOJ has responded to this suit, but I read their response and it doesn't seem, they don't seem to be defending Barr's roll out of the Mueller report more. They seem to be jumping ahead and defending bar and the department's redactions, which seems to be kind of putting the cart before the horse like assuming what's next, you know what I'm saying? It just seemed like a really weird, like they were defending something like a different case. It seemed. It didn't make sense.
Starting point is 00:57:22 It didn't seem uh... coherent to me well strategically i actually think if i was in their shoes that might be the right thing to do because it may very well be that the phoenix reactions are uh... defensible in other words you know they say that career people handle that very well maybe the truth i don't know
Starting point is 00:57:43 it's harder to defend when you get into the weeds, the specifics of what Barr did. So if you read the statement, they have like one line where they say it wasn't true, we defend, you know, that, you know, what, essentially that it wasn't true what he said about Barr's rollout. But it's just sort of a flat denial. And that's what you say, as a lawyer, I'll tell you, when somebody just gives like a flat denial, and they don't get into the weed, it kind of explain why something's wrong, that can mean that there's just,
Starting point is 00:58:14 you know, it's problematic when you get into the weeds. And that's what I think the issue is here. You know, if I was cross examining Attorney General Barr, I think in five minutes, you know, be very hard for him to explain why he, you know, selectively quoted from the document and so on. Yeah. Yeah, and he had a hard time explaining that to Congress as well. So we'll see how that rolls out. But just for like a little bit of a legal breakdown here,
Starting point is 00:58:45 this is a FOIA lawsuit, we're in the district court. What are the next steps I assume the Department of Justice will appeal Walton's ruling, and then do we go through the dance where we go to the appeals court and then possible hearing and bonk and then scotus? Is that the progression that we're probably looking at? You know, it's possible, but I think it's also,
Starting point is 00:59:06 I think it's more likely, I think it's also possible and without knowing the details of their redactions because I can't, no one, none of us knows publicly. So I think it's likely that they're just gonna, I think it's likely that they're just gonna hand over the documents. And if that, if what they said is true, I mean, after all, they put up this public statement
Starting point is 00:59:24 in which they said that career staff handled this without any real input or direct involvement from bar. If that's true, which it better be true, because they put that in a public statement now after being called out by the judge, you know, DOJ mages say, fine, take a look at it. And, you know, if, if what they're saying is true, then that will put an end to all this, right? The judge will look at it it he'll compare the red actions maybe I mean I'm sure he'll have some changes he'll say you know there's certain forces that be disagreed with but then that's it you know the then the public will see whatever the judge comes up with and will be done with it
Starting point is 00:59:57 that would be in my view the savvy way of handling this it is long as you're at what you're saying is on the up and up now if they are trying to redact something that they shouldn't be, that they really don't want the public to find out about, well, then they are going to have to try to appeal this and fight it. And that could be a long process. And it may not work well for them. It'll draw more attention to this. So, you know, I think the judges, you know, the judges' comments are, you know, are within the realm of things that a judge could do, which is, you know, he's taking a close look at it. I could see the DC circuit potentially, although it's skewed with more with democratically appointed nominees.
Starting point is 01:00:35 It's certainly possible that they could take a different view on this. So, you know, it's possible to work out for the DOJ, but I think the more prudent approach would potentially just be to hand this to the judge and let him take a look at it. Yeah, sure. And like you said, if everything's on the up and up, and if it's not, I would assume that then there are number one priorities to delay this past November, which could easily be done through a series of appeals.
Starting point is 01:01:01 Correct. I think that's exactly right. But I also want to caution our listeners not to feel like just because the DOJ appeals this means that their redactions aren't on the up and up. I don't think that that would necessarily be a correlation that you could just assume. I think that's right. It could be that they are can stay one of indicate, you know, bars reputation or they want to vindicate, you know, bars, reputation, or they want to show judges that you can't just push them around. But I have to say if this was not politically charged, I think they would do, and they're really on the up and up they would do what I suggested,
Starting point is 01:01:36 because it's just a simple thing to do. You know, don't forget that justice department typically is looking past the current case and they're thinking about the future, and they're going to be half cases in front of Judge Walden for years to come. So you want to show him. I think demonstrates in that the Justice Department is acting with credibility. Yeah, I don't know.
Starting point is 01:01:54 Sometimes I question that they're actually caring about what happens in the future, but I don't want to put any undue opinions on, you know, what may or may not be real. Anyway, thank you so much for answering those questions for us. We'll keep looking for this ruling and how the DOJ reacts to it. I really appreciate your input. Everybody, please check out the on topic podcast with former federal prosecutor and CNN
Starting point is 01:02:19 legal analyst, Renato Marriotti. Renato, thanks back. Thanks again for coming back on Mollershi Road. Thanks so much, AJ, anytime. All right, everybody, that's our show. Thanks again to Ren and Mariotti. Renato thanks back. Thanks again for coming back on Mollershi Rout. Thanks so much, A.G. anytime. Alrighty, everybody. That's our show. Thanks again to Renato and Mariotti. He's just such an awesome person, very smart. Great legal mind. I appreciate him coming on, former federal prosecutor, CNN legal analyst. Just a cool dude. And thanks for, you know, listening. We appreciate it. Yeah, we've gotten so many wonderful reviews on Apple Podcast lately for both shows.
Starting point is 01:02:46 Really, really nice ones. Very cool. I love reading those. Me too. We've passed, I think, 1200 reviews on daily beans down on Apple Podcast. I know we're five stars on there right now too, which is nice.
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Starting point is 01:03:09 and you like the show, give us a review and have a podcast. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah, for real. Yeah, cool. We would appreciate it. Any final words for you guys? Ladies, women.
Starting point is 01:03:19 We've got another primary. Yeah, we do. And we're gonna go over all the the goodie goodie election stuff. And the daily beans comes out tomorrow morning, unless you're a patron, then you get it a day early and you get it ad-free. So it's worth the three bucks a month, I think, for that premium content. Yeah, well, they can tour primary feelings. And we do videos. Right after this. Yeah. And your hair is very sexy, apparently. And my tattoos are also. Yes, we got a, we got a comment responses. Yes, we put out a special bonus video content
Starting point is 01:03:45 if you're a patron and we're starting to get some some Cresci comments from people Jordan has a beautiful flowing hair and AG's tattoos are sexy and we do those as soon as we have Answers to questions. So if you want to submit a question find our tweets and or go on our patreon website Yeah, patreon.com slash muller. She wrote and question. And as soon as we've got some questions together, we put together video content. We aren't putting it out on a timeline or anything, but we should have about one a week out. So I'll be wearing my onesie this week.
Starting point is 01:04:13 I put callouts out. So I ask, I put out a callout about ones a week for the questions, and we're getting some awesome ones for this week, so I'm excited. Yeah, and it's a red plaid onesie And and the thing is is that winter is ending. We're in our third spring now. Well, I think we're back into third winter Yeah, because it rained here in San Diego because it rained but it's I'm not gonna be able to wear that onesie for much longer It's gonna start getting hot. So you're definitely if you want to see the onesie It'll actually probably be up there for all eternity. In the summer they can see a sweat.
Starting point is 01:04:46 Oh, yeah. That's what I was saying off the mic. I was like, oh, I am a very sweaty person. Excited for that. Yeah, me too. All right, well that's it. Thank you so much. Please take care of each other and take care of yourselves.
Starting point is 01:05:00 I've been A.G. I've been Jordan Coburn. Mandy Rita. And this is Mullershi Road. Mullershi Road is executive produced and directed by AG and Jordan Coburn with engineering and editing by Mackenzie Mazell and Starburn's industries. Our marketing manager, production and social media direction is by Amanda Reader, fact checking a research by AG, Jordan Coburn, and Amanda Reader, and our knowledgeable listeners. Our web design and branding are by Joao Reader with Moxie Design Studios and our website is
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